For many years, I’ve struggled to stick to a goal. Work to me, and staying loyal to a team or company didn’t come with that many challenges at all. But whenever I found a new goal, passion or hobby, the ability to stick to it passed the face novelty faded away rather quickly. Recently, I had to declutter drawers and shelves to find out I spend over 4000 dollars worth of hobby goods over 16 different hobby themes or derivatives in the past 6 years since I moved here. Before that, I was a digital nomad, living mostly out of a suitcase and one backpack. That was the life! But still relatively bad on the wallet. Although the last couple of years I managed to make one hobby or goal stick. Which is this, exploring topics and writing about my findings. I still work full-time, but this was a lifetime goal of mine that managed to finally workout in the last of couple of years. Was it just because I was more passionate about it? No! Au contraire! I used my favorite subject and most annoying passion in this pursuit: science and research! So if you want to stick with your interest, build momentum, and become a true doer? Try out this framework that worked well for my ADHD brain.
The four-phase process for sticking to your goals
Phase 1: Curiosity – External Exposure
In this stage, you’re basically fueling your curiosity by consuming and exposing yourself to the wonders that world has to offer! This is where your interest gets its spark. Your mission? Just keep that curiosity fed, immerse yourself in it, and relish every moment of the adventure!
How to Embrace Curiosity:
- Watch, read, or listen: Dive into content that gets you excited! Binge-watch tutorials, devour blogs and articles, listen to podcasts, etc.
- Explore without pressure: Don’t focus on becoming an expert! I know this part is difficult. This phase is about giving yourself permission to enjoy the process without worrying about achievement. The only achievement you want to focus on is just doing it and having fun. The only aim you really need is the one for just diving in and having fun!
- Get inspired: Surround yourself with an array of input sources! Inspiration strikes in the most unlikely places, so why would you confine your creativity to just one flavor or groove? Dive into the diverse!
Phase 2: Maintaining Curiosity – Continuous External Exposure
Once you’ve dipped your toes in, it’s time to keep that curiosity going. Phase 2 is all about turning it into a consistent habit of external exposure. You don’t need to conquer your interest or become an expert yet—just focus on staying engaged and enjoying it.
Strategies for Maintaining Curiosity:
- Build momentum with small actions: No need to make it your lifelong passion or be fully committed at this point. Just continue to engage with interest, even in small ways. Watch a video, read an article, or attend a class. Let curiosity lead the way.
- Avoid overcommitment: This is not about becoming a master right away. You’re still learning and playing around. If something doesn’t click, that’s okay—move on to the next thing that piques your interest or choose a different direction.
- Experiment with engagement: Try out your interest in small badges, like attending a workshop, participating in a community forum, or testing it out with a project or challenge. Want to run a marathon? Sign up for a 5 or 10k run, and move your way up. The key here is maintaining a low-pressure, explorative mindset. Why? Particularly people with ADHD and Autism recognize this; when you think you know it all or believe you’re good enough at it or won’t grow in it, the interest fades. But if you focus on continuous exploration instead, without overloading yourself with knowledge, it will trigger you to keep on trying new elements of your goal.
The important thing in Phase 2 is to keep exposing yourself to new information and experiences. Turn the doing into a habit. If you do this until you feel you’ve fed your curiosity enough, you’re ready to move on to the next phase.
Phase 3: Theory Crafting – Self-Examination and Exploration
This is where curiosity turns into action. Thinkers will continue the external exposure phase indefinitely, but a doer actually takes the next step—testing the waters. Theory crafting is about internal reflection and personal experimentation. It’s where you take all that you’ve explored, learned, absorbed, and then some to start forming your own ideas, strategies, or iterations.
How should you Approach Theory Crafting:
- Try things out: Begin with experimenting. You’ve learned enough to start testing what works and what doesn’t. This could mean writing your first story, composing a song, building a small project, or simply apply what you’ve learned in a more tangible way.
- Reflect on your experience: After trying something, ask yourself, “Why did this work?” or “Why didn’t this work?” Reflection deepens your understanding and improves your approach.
- Create personal strategies: As soon as you reflect and try more things, you’ll develop your own strategies, approaches, and ways of doing things that fit you personally. This phase is about self-discovery and refining your own methods.
- Repeat the process: Experiment, reflect, and adjust. This cycle will help you improve over time and develop a stronger understanding of your craft.
The more you engage in theory crafting, the better you’ll understand not only your own work but the work of others. You’ll be able to see the deeper nuances and appreciate the underlying mechanics of what makes something effective to you. Once you’ve repeated this process enough, you’ll be ready to level up to the final phase. When things don’t work out, or you become annoyed, try a slightly different approach. Remember that applying your skills from phase 2 can help you here.
Phase 4: Mastery and Advanced Development
In this phase, you’ve developed a certain level of resilience, stability, and expertise. You’ve spent enough time experimenting and reflecting to have a thorough sense of your craft. You’re now ready to transition into advanced learning and mastery. Signs You’re Ready for Phase 4:
- You understand and appreciate the theory of others: You can now absorb complex, advanced-level content. You appreciate the nuances in other people’s work and can identify deeper layers of information.
- You maintain momentum effortlessly: The more you learn, the more curious you become. At this stage, learning and growing is what makes it self-sustaining.
- Feedback becomes essential: As you get better and better, advancing into mastery, become open to feedback. External input from peers, mentors, coaches or critics will enhance your skills to a professional or expert level.
How to Thrive Being a Doer in Phase 4:
- Absorb more advanced content: Dive into harder, more complex material. Challenge yourself with more in-depth questions and tougher problems.
- Seek out mentors, coaches and peers: As you continue to grow, surround yourself with people who are more advanced than you. Their feedback will help you grow faster. It’s also easier to focus on growth when you have people to look up to, instead of being the person looked up to.
- Stay resilient: Mastery takes time and patience. Make sure you’ve developed enough resilience before diving into more challenging aspects. Rushing into this phase too early will only lead to frustration or burnout.
Finally Being a Doer
Mastering an interest and sticking to it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual, repeatable process that starts with curiosity and ends with mastery. By following all four phases—external exposure, continuous curiosity, theory crafting, and advanced development—you can transform your passion from a fleeting interest into a lifelong habit or even profession.
The key is to move at your own pace, gradually transitioning between phases as your curiosity deepens and your skills grow. In short, feed your curiosity, experiment thoughtfully, and when the time is right, seek out mastery.
Stick to the process, and you’ll no longer be the person with only dreams, but the one who executes.
